The woman, dejected after learning of the baby’s condition, was determined to continue the pregnancy and agreed to allow doctors to perform the procedure on the fetus’s heart.
New Delhi: A team of AIIMS doctors successfully performed complex surgery on the heart of a grape-sized fetus, reshaping it inside a mother’s womb in just 90 seconds. The 28-year-old pregnant patient was admitted to the hospital with three previous miscarriages. The parents wished to continue the current pregnancy after physicians reported the child’s cardiac condition and consented to the procedure in the hope of improving the outcome.
The woman, dejected after learning of the baby’s condition, was determined to continue the pregnancy and agreed to allow doctors to perform the procedure on the fetus’s heart.
The procedure was performed at the Center for Cardiothoracic Sciences, AIIMS. The team of interventional cardiologists and fetal medicine specialists performed the procedure successfully.
“A team of interventional cardiologists together with physicians from the AIIMS Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology performed the procedure called balloon dilation in the obstructed valve of the heart. Under the procedure which was performed under ultrasound guidance, a needle was inserted into the fetal heart and then, using a balloon catheter, the clogged valve was unclogged,” a senior doctor told the PTI news agency.
“The whole procedure had to be done very quickly. It was very challenging. We managed to do it in about a minute and a half,” the doctor said. “With this remodeling procedure, hopefully the fetal heart will develop better. Both the fetus and the mother are stable and are being closely monitored,” added the doctor.
On Twitter, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said: “I congratulate the team of doctors at @AIIMS_NewDelhi for successfully performing a rare procedure on the grape-sized heart of a fetus in 90 seconds. My prayers for the well-being of the baby and the mother.
Both mother and fetus are doing well.
According to the team of doctors from the Department of Cardiology and Cardiac Anesthesia, together with the AIIMS Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (fetal medicine), “Both the fetus and the mother are doing well after the procedure. Teams of doctors are monitoring the growth of the heart chambers to ultimately determine the future management of the baby.”
“Some types of serious heart disease can be diagnosed while the baby is in the mother’s womb. Sometimes treating them in utero can improve the baby’s prospects after birth and lead to near-normal development,” the team further said.
What is balloon dilation surgery?
A balloon dilation is a cardiac catheterization procedure. A small, flexible tube (catheter) is inserted into a blood vessel in the groin and guided into the heart.
The tube has a deflated balloon at the end. When the tube is placed into the narrowed valve, the balloon is inflated to stretch the area open.
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